Popular education is a mode of teaching and learning which seeks to bring about more equitable social conditions by creating settings in which people can identify and solve their own problems. While the public health literature offers evidence to suggest that popular education is an effective strategy for increasing empowerment and improving health, there have been no systematic attempts to compare the outcomes of popular education to those of traditional education. The goal of La Palabra es Salud was to conduct such a comparison among Latino, parish-based Community Health Workers (CHWs). The study employed a quasi-experimental design, mixed methods, and a community-based participatory research (CBPR) framework. Results of a mixed factorial ANOVA revealed that both experimental groups made statistically significant gains in health knowledge when compared to a control group. Within-group comparisons showed that the popular education (PE) group made statistically significant improvements in self-reported ability to promote health, critical consciousness, and on a global measure of empowerment, while the traditional education (TE) group made significant gains in critical consciousness, control at the personal level, self-reported health status, and self-reported health behavior. Because the TE group was almost twice as large as the PE group, almost identical changes that achieved significance in the TE group did not achieve significance in the PE group. Results of the qualitative analysis validated the quantitative results, with members of the TE group reporting improvements in health knowledge and behavior while members of the PE group reported increased empowerment and ability to empower others. Our findings suggest that, when compared to traditional education, popular education can help participants develop a deeper sense of empowerment and community and more multi-faceted skills and understandings, with no accompanying sacrifice in the acquisition of knowledge. These results have their most direct implications for the education of adults from disempowered communities, where popular education shows promise for supporting community members to identify and organize around shared concerns. More broadly, the research suggests that wider use of popular education in mainstream educational settings could promote greater inclusion and increased success for students who have experienced marginalization, producing a more equitable society.

This research describes the design and evaluation of an internet-based universal program for use in schools with adolescent students to prevent common mental disorders and promote mental health. The research began in response to investigations that showed that rates of mental illness in Australian children, teenagers and adults were high, that these illnesses caused significant burden to individuals and society, and that there were insufficient services to treat. When current interventions are unable to alleviate disease burden it is important to focus on prevention. Mental health prevention should target youth before disorders cause disability and restriction of life choices. A review of the mental health prevention literature supported a universal cognitive behavioural approach in schools. Internet delivery was used to maintain content integrity, enable access to people living in regional and remote areas, and to appeal to young people. Internet delivery makes universal prevention cost effective and feasible. The Intervention Mapping approach was used to direct the design of the program. A feasibility study was conducted to gain opinions from students and teaching staff. Changes were made in light of results from this study and 463 students were then exposed to the program in an effectiveness trial. The effectiveness trial was a before-after design with no control group. Results from this trial provided evidence that the program was acceptable and effective for use by teachers in the intervention schools. Also student behaviour and mood changed in beneficial ways after program administration. Specifically, student reported significantly increased knowledge about stress and coping, use of help-seeking behaviours, and life satisfaction, and significantly decreased use of avoidance behaviours, total difficulties and psychological distress. The study design allows causal inferences to be surmised concerning exposure to the intervention and changes in behaviour and mood, but further evidence is needed before firm conclusions about effectiveness can be posited and generalizations made concerning different populations, settings and times. In conclusion, this thesis provides evidence that a computerised, cognitive behavioural mental health prevention program delivered to adolescent school students by teachers can potentially change student coping behaviours and mood in beneficial ways.

As a practitioner involved in the planning and development of educational activities in the field of public health, I have worked within many pedagogical traditions and program parameters. Through this work, I have experienced both subtle and radical shifts in the range of skills, knowledge and relationships required to collaboratively plan and evaluate educational work. In this professional and community-based landscape, competing and often overlapping models of education and evaluation have led to much conceptual confusion and ambiguity around narrowly defined notions of best practice, evidence and knowledge legitimacy. Drawing from Dorothy Smith’s (1999) standpoint theory from which my inquiry was developed as a result of my participation with colleagues in the field, I explore how three professional practice networks of learning and development practitioners speak of the skills, knowledge, relationships and worker identities in a changing field. This research seeks to explicate the kinds of informal and largely unarticulated knowledge that is produced through the changing contexts of work. This research maps the changing conditions of educational work through my own case stories of educational practice and uses these as a springboard for discussion among three diverse professional practice networks. The Story/Dialogue Method (S/D-M) developed by Labonte and Feather (1996), is a constructivist methodological approach that, in this application, structures group dialogue into reflective insights and theories about how educational work occurs in varied settings among different professional and community-based groups. A strong reliance on interpersonal skills was articulated by all three networks to build trust, assess individual and organisational learning needs, to build partnerships and to motivate learners. Skills were often described vaguely and summarised as a series of situational specific attributes. A valuing of reflexive, working knowledge as opposed to professional or discipline-based expertise was raised as an important aspect of partnership building and in negotiating program parameters. The need to build individual and organisational relationships through formal and informal encounters was cited as a series of legitimate yet often ‘behind the scenes’ professional practices. Aligning with the notion of worker identity described by Chappell, Rhodes, Solomon, Tennant and Yates (2003) as process, practitioners spoke of their identities as constructed and temporary, negotiated through newly emerging roles and changing relationships with peers and learners. This study suggests that evidence-based practice is a contested term drawing its meanings from multiple theoretical and pedagogical traditions including that of intuition. Perhaps unsurprisingly then, evidence guiding educational approaches is viewed as a pragmatic and eclectic mix of tools stored to be adapted for use in new ways. Additionally, this study concludes that all participants (including myself) regard educational practice as a collaborative and continually negotiated endeavour.

Anger is an emotion sorely in need of an improved public profile. Its association with overt violent aggression has masked its original purpose, namely, to be a useful and motivating force to engineer our survival. An emotion designed to serve us well in the face of injustice and threat has become the means by which injustice is perpetuated by the strong and powerful, against the weak and vulnerable. The expression of anger is often misguided, dysfunctional and misplaced with terrible consequences for society, including road rage. Yet there is increasing evidence that the suppression of anger is associated with negative health-related conditions including heart disease, cancer, mental illness, substance abuse and eating disorders. Evidence suggests that anger has a three-stage structure of socialised reactivity, biological anger generation and environmentally acquired action and expression. As a result of this six-year research study, ten key principles of anger expression have emerged, suggesting that anger can be learned in both informal and formal institutional education by both children and adults. These principles were incorporated into a pilot program aimed to educate rather than eliminate anger expression, in a health promotion program involving 25 self-selected Canberra women. This program formed part of a wider study of acquired anger management experiences through questionnaires and in-depth interviews. Results from the study are presented as a core of learned and learnable knowledge about anger, as modules of information. These modules can be adapted and modified for any learning forum, including schools, adult education, career-related education and inservice training. Suggestions for the packaging of these component parts are provided, together with guidelines for reaching target groups. This thesis contends that each individual has the right to know and utilise this information and can use anger to achieve beneficial outcomes for themselves. If anger expression is inappropriate and dysfunctional, so will be its effects. If anger expression is appropriate and functional, then it can have a positive and beneficial outcome.

<p>The purpose of this study was to determine if wellness benefits led to any changes in exercise habits among employed postmen. The study was a cross-sectional study carried out by a quantitative method. The collection of data took the form of a questionnaire. The sample consisted of 30 postmen employed at a post office in northern Sweden. The results show that of the postman who use health care benefits, there has been a relatively small change in exercise habits. The results also show that consistently for all respondents was health the main motivation factor for exercise. Time aspect was a factor for not using the wellness benefits. The study showed a state of health is the primary motivational factor to exercise both for those using health care benefits and for those who do not use them.</p>

<p>Mental illness is seen as a public health problem around the world, especially among adolescents. Cambodia is one of Asia's poorest countries, and has one of the lowest health statuses. Only one in four children are able to go to school in Cambodia for economic reasons however in Sweden all children have the right to education but mental health is still a major problem. The aim of the present study is to make a comparison between the mental health of children in English schools in Sweden and in Cambodia, using a target group of fifteen-year-olds, and also to see if there are differences in the school staff's work in promoting children's mental health. This study used both a qualitative and a quantitative method involving sixty-six fifteen-year-old students. A questionnaire adapted from Antonovsky‟s Sense of Coherence (SOC) theory was used. Five qualitative interviews with teachers working with health were also carried out.The results showed that the Swedish students were satisfied with their life situation, and also had a higher SOC than the Cambodian participants. The students in Cambodia enjoyed school more than the Swedish students, but still, anxiety and worries were more common among students in Cambodia. The teachers in Cambodia and in Sweden had different ways of defining what health is.</p>

Mental illness is seen as a public health problem around the world, especially among adolescents. Cambodia is one of Asia's poorest countries, and has one of the lowest health statuses. Only one in four children are able to go to school in Cambodia for economic reasons however in Sweden all children have the right to education but mental health is still a major problem. The aim of the present study is to make a comparison between the mental health of children in English schools in Sweden and in Cambodia, using a target group of fifteen-year-olds, and also to see if there are differences in the school staff's work in promoting children's mental health. This study used both a qualitative and a quantitative method involving sixty-six fifteen-year-old students. A questionnaire adapted from Antonovsky‟s Sense of Coherence (SOC) theory was used. Five qualitative interviews with teachers working with health were also carried out.The results showed that the Swedish students were satisfied with their life situation, and also had a higher SOC than the Cambodian participants. The students in Cambodia enjoyed school more than the Swedish students, but still, anxiety and worries were more common among students in Cambodia. The teachers in Cambodia and in Sweden had different ways of defining what health is.

Abstract Aim: The aim of this study was to examine junior and first year senior athletes’ experiences and perceived effects of flotation-REST, including both the immediate response and experiences over time. Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six elite track and field athletes (five female and one male), aged 17-23 years, who were purposefully sampled and had used flotation-REST two to six times. They were each interviewed on two occasions; once directly following a floating session and later a second interview concerning the overall experience. The interview transcripts were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, 1996). Results: From the analysis four themes emerged: Meaning of Flotation-REST, Experiences during Flotation-REST, Perceived Effects of Flotation-REST, and Views on Flotation-REST. Flotation-REST became a learning opportunity concerning relaxation for all athletes and three of them reported that it raised their awareness of the importance of relaxation and psychological skills training. For five athletes the floating sessions also became a breather in the daily life. The floating sessions were perceived as pleasant and relaxing. Three athletes experienced a lot of thoughts in the tank and five of them fell asleep at least twice. After flotation-REST five athletes reported experiencing less stress and an overall increase in well-being as well as feeling calmer and more energized for one or two days, although they were physically tired at practice immediately following a floating session. Being in a better mood and placing fewer demands on themselves as well as feeling more optimistic and present were also mentioned as perceived effects. The results showed more and longer-lasting psychological effects than physiological. The sixth athlete did not experience any special effects, nor did he experience stress in his daily life and sport performance, as opposed to the others. Conclusions: The study shows the potential of flotation-REST as a technique for health promotion and also as a method for stress management. Further, as the results revealed raised awareness, flotation-REST could be valuable together with other psychological skills training techniques, mindfulness and the physical training. However, considering the differences in the athletes’ perceived effects of flotation-REST, it indicates the importance of further research on the topic.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--West Virginia University, 2001. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xiii, 178 p. : ill. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 124-136).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 231-243).